Dad

This blog is dedicated to my dad George, one of the greatest men in the world. November 10, 1944 - March 8, 2007.

I've been struggling with this blog for about a week now... I'd get something written down and then change my mind about it. How exactly do you pay tribute to one of the greatest men in the world.. with just mere words? So I've decided I'm going to just do one of my rambly blogs.. just of things to do with dad.

Everyone who knew my dad loved him.. he had a wonderful sense of humor and was a kind person. Dad liked being social and enjoyed being around people.. which is kind of funny seeing as mom is anti-social and doesn't like being around people much. Dad adored his girls.. and he would have given us the moon if we asked. Dad loved mom, and mom loved dad.. they were like teenagers in love and managed to stay that way for 37 years.

I often talk about dad's sense of humor when I post about him.. he was always telling jokes and playing pranks. When he lost the ability to speak and had to use the box to talk for him, he macro'd two jokes.. one went like this "People think it is the box talking to them because they can not see my lips move... pretty good ventriloquist act hey" and the other was "There was once an Indian chief who wanted his son to be the first to go to college. His son went to college and became an engineer.. upon returning to the tribe he asked the chief what he could do for the tribe since they had been so generous to him. The chief thought about it for a minute and said, the old folk have been having troubles tripping when they go to the outhouse at night, some lights would help them. Thus the chief's son became the first person to wire a head for a reservation"... think about it a second and you'll get it.

I remember when I broke my nose and wound up in the ER to get fixed up. Dad had a hard time with the sight of blood, and I was a mess. He went to the gift shop and bought me a stuffed Snoopy dressed up for Halloween. Poor dad was pale as all get out when he gave me that stuffed Snoopy.. but he was going to be there no matter what.

Dad liked his television.. every night he would be watching something on TV. He really enjoyed watching Jay Leno at night. Mom bought him a big screen TV, when that one died we all went shopping for another one with dad. Of course we had to go to the big screen sections.. dad said that he could watch the small screen TVs if he had to, but that things were much better on the big screen. We got another huge screen TV.. I remember packing it in the crate for the move. Dad bought a ton of bubble wrap and wrapped it up, and then we had to carefully move it very slowly.. when we put it in the crate we had to pack all our clothes, sheets, blankets, etc. around it so that it had extra protection. When the crates arrived, it was one of the first things that dad had us unpack. ROFL.. The last year of his life when he was ashamed to go out much because he didn't want to scare people (he was pretty disfigured and the bone had died so it smelled pretty bad) he spent a lot of time in front of that TV... it was mostly background noise while he put together puzzles or dozed off, but he did love his TV.

Another thing dad loved was music.. he spent a lot of time listening to jazz and Motown. He didn't have much fondness for the music me and my sisters listened to.. he would refer to Guns N Roses are "Popguns and Posies". Heh.. that still makes me smile. I have dad's CD collection now.. I play them quite a bit, the jazz especially helps me to think when I need to clear my head. Funny thing is before dad passed away jazz was alright, but not something I would go looking for. 'Course.. there are songs that remind me of dad.. not just the jazz, but in general. There is one song in particular that can make me cry, but doesn't make the siblings or the twidgets sad.. Dance With My Father. It gets me every time.

Since dad has passed we have had some strange things happen.. people refer to them as "winks", dad letting us know that he's still here. When dad quit smoking many many many years ago mom bought him a gold toothpick because he had chewed on toothpicks to quit smoking. That gold toothpick resided in his wallets for over 30 years. Recently when we were moving mom's old monitor and putting in her new one we found dad's gold toothpick.. on top of the new monitor box. No one had been in dad's wallet.. mom keeps that in dad's nightstand. We're at a loss for explaining how the toothpick got onto the box. Another one was back in January mom and I kept smelling this horrible smell like a rat had died... we looked EVERYWHERE for it.. even in the vents.. no rat. So mom went under the house (err.. I can't because I'm claustrophobic) and didn't find any dead animals.. but did find some damage that the plumber had done when he was fixing our faucet out front.. he had to go under the house to replace that particular faucet. Anyway, the insulation on the pipes had been torn off and the pipes probably would've froze if we hadn't looked for that smell.. the funny part about all this? As soon as mom went under the house, the smell stopped. It's like dad was trying to get our attention and knew that would. One last one.. we had someone come out and fix the heater a while ago.. shortly after that, but before it started to get cold enough for us to use the heater the carbon monoxide detector next to the heater went off a few times.. we replaced it with another one thinking it had malfunctioned.. the new one did the same thing. We had someone come out and check on things.. turns out that the guy who'd been out to fix the heater hadn't put some stuff back right and if we had used the heater it could've very well put carbon monoxide into the house. Dad is certainly looking out for us still it looks like.

Life without dad has been hard.. but I think that he'd be proud of how well we're all holding up. We haven't turned into a sobbing mess and unable to function. We're still a strong family.. I think THAT is one of the big reasons that we haven't turned into a mess. We've got our moments that are tear soaked, but for the most part we try to enjoy life, kind of a way to honor dad... he loved life and made the most of it.

On holidays we do things to celebrate dad instead of mourn him... we'll always miss him, but we all agree that dad would've rather we celebrated his life instead of being all sad and mopey. Tomorrow we're going to Cripple Creek to play slots and enjoy a day trip that gets us out of the house. I'm not sure if dad will rig the slots for us.. it'd be nice, but then again dad enjoyed putting an occasional $20 in the slots and just having fun playing them.

I miss dad with all my heart.. he was a huge part of my world. He's always going to live on in my memories and my heart though.. and he will always be Superman to me.

Love you dad.